Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Day 50: 4/8/1970 Raleigh, NC

We're Gonna Groove, Dazed and Confused, Heartbreaker, Bring it on Home, White Summer/Black Mountain Side, Since I've Been Loving You, Thank You, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick

The tape begins during the first verse of We're Gonna Groove. Page gets the band into an excellent funky jam after the guitar solo. The bass intro to Dazed and Confused causes someone near the taper to respond "oh wow." Page seems to have some trouble with his equipment during the bow solo and he completely disappears during the final verse, but it doesn't detract from the epic nature of the song. The band is on fire.

Plant does a bit about American accents before Heartbreaker. Page shreds through the extended solo. Plant occasionally has a strange echo effect on his vocals. An extended Bring it on Home features some fine harmonica playing as well as an excellent duel between Page and Bonzo. Another excellent White Summer/Black Mountain Side is introduced as "the white summer of pale Jimmy Page" by Plant. One of the most interesting renditions thus far, Page experiments with many new licks and themes.

Page improvises a new opening to Since I've Been Loving You. Plant delivers a dynamic, emotionally charged performance. Jones's organ solo is based around a great driving groove. Thank You features backing vocals from Page, as well as some great bluesy licks. Bonzo is out of control. One of the best renditions thus far. The recording ends during another thunderous Moby Dick.

The tape is excellent, clear and well-balanced. It's a shame we don't have the rest of this great show.

There is about a minute and a half of silent 8mm color footage from the show in Charlotte, NC on 4/7/1970. The footage is quite dark and shaky, featuring only brief fragments of the performance. Since there is no audio from this show, I didn't think it necessary to make a separate post.

1 comment:

Conner
said...

1970-04-08 Dorten Arena, Raliegh, North Carolina (From Source) 1st Gen AUDThis sounds to me than either the Mandala or Baby Face release, also seemed a bit more complete. Typical set list, though it looks like the tapers 90 minute tape ran out during Moby Dick, and so How Many More Times and any encores are missing. Plant talks about on his American Accent between Dazed and Confused and Heartbreaker. Bring It On Home is played next, followed by White Summer - Black Mountain Side. For a change, the crowd seems fairly settled for White Summer. Plant then says they want to play something off of LZ III, and they go into Since I've Been Loving You. The Organ Solo and Thank You are next, still sounding good. This is followed by What Is and What Should Never Be. Moby Dick wraps up this show, there is some tape issues nearing the end of Moby Dick, but nothing too major. Shame it wasn't a complete show.

I was impressed with the sound, clear, mild hiss, few tape issues, performance sounded solid. Still in debate on if this show was 4/7 or 4/8 ... if it was Raleigh or Charlotte. The scan of the actual physical 1st gen tape says Raleigh NC 4-7-70, but we may never *really* know for sure.